With You
by Firesword
Summary: Slash. HPSS. Oneshot. With you, I am able to be someone with more focus, more grounded, and more thoughtful.


**Fandom: **Harry Potter  
**Fic Title: **With You  
**Author: **Firesword  
**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and its characters belong to JK Rowling and so forth. I just own the bit of muse.  
**Summary: **Slash. HPSS. "With you, I am able to be someone with more focus, more grounded, and more thoughtful."  
**Genre: **Romance/Fluff/Fantasy  
**Warnings: **OOC. No Plot. Fluff. One-shot.  
**Rating: **M (Mature/Red Flame, to be safe)  
**Author's Notes: **For some reason, I just feel like writing this... It's really just a no-plot, fluffy drabble?

**WITH YOU  
by Firesword**

The night was quiet. For some reason, it had always felt that way to Harry, ever since his return to the Hollow. It just ... it was not the same anymore. Harry tried; he tried to accept the fact that he would never see some people ever again. Hagrid, Fang, Dumbledore and many others.

He was thankful that the war had spared his best friends from death - or worse, madness. Some were not lucky.

Harry did not think he was lucky, although he had retained his sanity, his magic, his humanity. But maybe he had lost something - he had lost his sensibility.

It had all begun on the night when Voldemort had fallen. So many were injured during the battle and Harry had helped Remus and the others to look for survivors, and his first live one was Severus Snape. He did not know that he had cradled Severus' head to his lap. No, not at first. The face was so bloodied and the person's nose was broken quite badly. The man on his lap was barely breathing.

It was only when he had brought the injured wizard to a temporary camp did he know about the wizard's identity. He did not understand his own reaction when Severus had ceased to breathe. He remembered that the medi-wizards had tried to get him out, but he just would not let go of Severus' shoulders. For some reason, he could not let go of the wizard.

Someone had hexed him unconscious and had placed him on an unoccupied bed. When he had come to, he was extremely happy to know that Severus had managed to survive the night after all. The medics were able to resuscitate him. From then on, he had remained in the camp, keeping vigil. Not only were his friends perplexed by his behavior, but Harry himself could not comprehend why he was acting that way.

On the ninth day in the makeshift camp, Severus had regained his consciousness. Harry was sitting on a wooden chair, backward, resting his forehead against the rough wood. He had heard a soft sound and when he had looked up, he was trapped by an intense black gaze.

However, it was not the pair of obsidian eyes that had captured his soul, his heart. It was the one word that Severus had whispered. Harry had never heard the wizard speak with any other emotion except anger, but that time, it was different.

_"Harry."_

It took him several minutes to realize that there was someone calling him in reality. He straightened and peered around the tree trunk.

"Hey." He acknowledged the wizard's presence with a soft smile.

The wizard stepped closer until moonlight shone on him and revealed his face. Severus Snape gazed down at Harry with an odd expression. It had a hint of sadness, but there was also a hint of happiness.

"Why are you sitting out here?" the older wizard asked softly.

"Ron's getting drunk again." Sadness crept back into him and he looked away. "When he does, he starts talking about ... I can't deal with it. Not yet."

"It has been nearly six years, Harry." Feet stepped gently on the grass and Harry listened intently to the sounds as Severus finally stood just beside him. The Potions master did not sit down, but he had leaned back against the tree trunk.

"I know." Carefully, he stood up, and winced when his right foot started to tingle. _I have sat for too long._ "But I cannot just forget about them ... their deaths," he said after several minutes of companionable silence. "What about you? Why are you here?"

"I do not want to be responsible for what happens inside your house," Severus said immediately. He looked quite haughty in Harry's opinion that it was impossible for him not to laugh at the wizard. That pulled out a very grumpy expression from the older man, but mercurially, it changed. "I wanted to be with you."

Harry smiled gently. Although what Severus had said was not really an invitation, he had courageously wrapped his arms around Severus. He looked up timidly and stared into a pair of obsidian eyes before lowering his emerald eyes. Then he embraced Severus, and rested his cheek against the bony shoulder.

No one had expected the two of them to share a bond after Voldemort's death. Both of them knew that something between them had changed, but neither knew exactly what it was, until two weeks ago, when Hermione had deliberately enlightened Harry about their situation. They had, against all expectations, managed to become friends. The going had been rough at first, but there were a lot of things that they had to face together. Severus had needed no defense - he was adamant about facing the music, or rather, the Ministry, but Harry was quite stubborn and had insisted on a trial.

Severus did not care so much about proving his innocence, but Harry had told him sternly that he had his life back and should make use of it as well as he could. Finally, after two years, charges against Severus were dropped and things were beginning to settle down. After that, Severus had left Harry, for five months, but he had returned to the Hollow, in a very sorry state. It had surprised him even more to see that Harry was doing just as badly.

Hermione had stared oddly at them, and then she had snorted, rolling her eyes upward before walking away in a huff.

"Dense like a bloody rock," she had muttered to herself, four years ago.

From being acquaintances, Harry and Severus became comrades, then friends, and then, the best of friends. It had never crossed their minds that their hearts were yearning for something more.

There were times when Harry had caught himself thinking about Severus in the most inappropriate of ways, and then there were occasions when he had seen Severus looking at him in a very, tender manner.

As friends would, Hermione had helped him clear his confusion. It happened a fortnight ago.

_"You are now twenty-four years old, Harry. God, can't you tell?"_

_"What?"_

_"You are in love with him, Harry! Haven't you realized that yet?"_

_"In love?"_

Severus' hand slowly came up and stroked Harry's hair gently.

The younger man let out a contented sigh and pressed his body closer against Severus'. "Love you, Severus."

The hand stopped stroking. Harry waited and tried to guess Severus' next move. But Severus did something that he did not quite expect.

He immediately lifted his face so that Severus could bury his on the crook of Harry's neck. Strong hands squeezed around him with gentle pressure. An indescribable sense of happiness filled Harry and he closed his eyes, losing himself in that embrace.

"Harry," Severus whispered. "What am I without you?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?" Harry found himself asking with a mischievous grin stretching his lips.

Severus pulled away and looked down at him with a mock scowl. Harry chuckled, and immersed himself with looking into the dark eyes above him. He released Severus' waist and lifted his hands. He cupped Severus' face, absently caressing his cheekbones with his thumbs.

"Without me, you will keep on being a hard, sarcastic, cynical, and a lonely man," Harry said softly. "With you, I am able to be someone with more focus, more grounded, and more thoughtful." He smiled crookedly. "I haven't gone rushing headlong into trouble since your return."

Severus raised his right eyebrow elegantly.

"Well, maybe the incident in the Burrows last night was an exception," Harry admitted. "I have sort of forgotten about Ginny - I mean, the way she used to feel about me." He winced inwardly and suddenly felt guilty.

That must have shown in his expression because Severus had pulled him into another hug. Harry did not really mind, because it had felt really good being in this position. He secretly loved the way it felt as Severus breathed on his hair gently.

"You cannot keep everyone happy," Severus murmured. "But it must have been a shock to her, when you had made the announcement."

"But she's the only one who was genuinely surprised," Harry said worriedly. "The rest ... Damn, maybe they knew and decided to keep it a secret from her." His emerald eyes narrowed in sudden annoyance. "Oh, great. I had to have Hermione hammer it to me and not realize it on my own. Now I know how Ron feels..."

Severus laughed. A very rich, throaty chuckle. Butterflies suddenly chose that moment to explode in Harry's stomach. He felt that he was falling in love all over again with the wizard.

"All right, so maybe I was a bit clueless." He lightly slapped Severus' upper arm. "You could have hinted."

"Were the looks not enough hints?" Severus inquired meekly.

Eight years ago, it would have been impossible for him to see into Severus' eyes, twinkling brightly with mirth.

"All right. I'm just shy." Harry felt the tip of his ears burn.

Severus laughed again. "Shy?" Severus whispered silkily. His hands slid down to Harry's hips.

Harry blushed even hotter.

"That did not come across when we were in the Weasleys' shed," Severus murmured seductively.

The younger man coughed and tried to shy away. Severus would not allow him, however, as his hands were holding him in place. That wicked smile was definitely promising.

"Okay, so maybe I'm just inexperienced," he mumbled. "But with you, I get to learn, won't I?"

Severus leaned forward but paused, with their lips nearly touching. "That is a definite yes, Mister Potter. And I will teach you all I know ... about..."

Their lips met and Harry parted his lips slightly to allow Severus to taste him.

"I will teach you all I know," Severus whispered again.

Tongues intertwined, fingers buried in ebony hair, bodies flushed against the other. Lost in the passionate kiss, they were not aware of the three wizards spying on them from behind a bush.

**oOooooOo**

"I told you-"

"-we heard something-"

"-funny in the shed last night."

"What in the blazes were they doing? Bloody hell ... in dad's shed?"

"That is a scary thought."

"I agree with you, Forge."

"And now, I think we should get back inside, and pretend to be drunk," Fred said with amusement. "If we stay a minute longer, we might just become voyeurs."

"Urgh!" Ron made a face.

The three brothers carefully extracted themselves from their hiding place and crept back into Harry's house.

**THE END**


End file.
